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Ban Is Extended on Caspian Sea Caviar Exports

MOSCOW, April 12 — The global suspension of the export of caviar and sturgeon products has been extended indefinitely from almost all of the Caspian Sea, the world's main caviar-producing region, meaning the supply of the delicacy will probably further tighten in the West.

Under the decision, by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or Cites, Iran will be allowed to export a limited amount of one species, the Persian sturgeon. But the other Caspian nations, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, will not be granted an annual export quota, effectively blocking legal shipments of the prized eggs to customers abroad. Export quotas for nations that harvest fish from stocks in the Black Sea, a less significant area for sturgeon production, were set at a very low level.

The ban on most of the trade, after an abrupt but temporary suspension of exports in January, occurred after years of dwindling sturgeon catches. There is worry that the remaining sturgeon populations are under intensive pressure from poachers and black-market rings, many sponsored or protected by governments.

A Cites official expressed sorrow that the decision, which was announced Tuesday, was necessary to protect the fish.

"Cites is not about banning things, it is about ensuring trade that is sustainable," David Morgan, who is in charge of the organization's science unit, said in a telephone interview. "It is regrettable that this is the way it is."

Mr. Morgan said that after the suspension took effect in January, nations that wanted to continue exports were invited to show that their fishing plans were sustainable and that their harvest data accounted for illegal catches. Except for Iran's submission for one species, no nation provided enough material to qualify for exports, he said. Iran was granted an export quota of 100,000 pounds of Persian sturgeon caviar; a small fraction of former shipments. In recent years the Caspian accounted for at least 90 percent of the caviar trade, but now all foreign trade in products from the Caspian in osetra, sevruga and beluga sturgeon remains blocked.

Cites, a convention on wildlife trade that 169 countries agree to, does not cover domestic trade, which means sales of sturgeon and their eggs are still permitted on local markets, where trade is robust.

Sturgeon, which enter rivers to spawn, have long faced several threats to their survival, including dams that block access to spawning grounds, pollution and overfishing. They are especially vulnerable to fishing pressure because they take several years to reach sexual maturity, and in some cases spawn only once every several years.

The value of their eggs has become their curse. The best caviar fetches more than $250 on ounce on Western retail markets, which has made fishing for sturgeon lucrative and encouraged corruption in the trade.

Though fishing at sea has been banned for years to protect fish between spawning runs, fishermen can be seen at sea with sturgeon catches, and markets and restaurants along the Caspian, and in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities, offer fresh sturgeon all year.

"Cites action isn't going to save this fish or clean up this fishery in and of itself," said Phaedra Doukakis, co-author of a global survey of the sturgeon declines that was published last year in the journal Fish & Fisheries. "There are all of these other outlets for trade that will be used. But it still is positive. It is still a move in the right direction."

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Ban Is Extended on Caspian Sea Caviar Exports. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe